News

Today we upgraded the SSCA® SIP training program which includes a number of updates such as new content, some old content removed, bug fixes and new labs.

Some of the MAJOR changes are as follows. For ALL of the detail, please download THIS PDF document and look for the Blue Text in BOLD…. That’s everything that we have changed!

Here are the highlights…..

SIP and Security

The SIP Security Module has changed to Security and Identity. This is to reflect the main addition of training on the STIR/SHAKEN initiative that aims to reduce/stop Robocalling and other nuisance calls.

Firewalls/NAT/SBC

New descriptions of NAT types

Details on how SBCs can be virtualized

SIP trunking

Expanded training on SD-WAN

New training/videos on SIP trunk configuration

New training/videos on Call analysis across a SIP trunk

Testing / Troubleshooting

New training/videos on Wireshark

ENUM

This module has been renamed to ENUM, Peering and Interconnect. This has been done due to more being added on how peering works as well as the inclusion of training on IP-NNI from ATIS and the SIP Forum.

SIP in the Cloud

New training/videos that shows a Cloud-based PBX with SIP trunks

We are really pleased with these new changes that reflect how SIP continues to evolve and underpin the world of communications.

Best Regards from the team @ The SIP School

May 18th 2017

Today sees the update for both the Wireshark and the Testing, Troubleshooting / Interop modules going live

At lot of changes here which include...

Wireshark:

New Videos to reflect the new Wireshark interface

Updated clients to use

Free DID number and (limited) credit

Videos covering... Display / Capture Filters

Profiles,

Call and INVITE analysis

Intelligent Scrollbar

Colouring Rules and more

Testing, Troubleshooting, and Interop:

Where to Capture

Other ways to get PCAP files

More on Wirehark re: the PCAP-ng file format

Packet Comments

RTP Stream analysis

TShark

We hope you like the new stuff and we're continuing to work in the backgroun on more updates that we intend to release soon.

Graham Francis
CEO The SIP School

March 13th 2017

New Certification badges are now available!

We’re really pleased to announce the update to our certification badge which if you have passed a certification test with us, you can display on your email signature, business card and maybe other places on the web - social media sites etc. The change was brought on first through the update to our SIP and Cloud program and then carried on through the SIP and Networking for VoIP programs (WebRTC is coming at a later date). Of course we liked the old badge, it’s just that we think the new ones are more compact whilst being more eye catching thus drawing people’s attention to your achievement.

We do hope you will logon to the system and via your History settings, download the badge and display it for people to see.

Thanks again for being a student of The SIP School

March 2nd 2017

SIP with Unified Communications

We’re currently working on some upgrades to the training software that we will be rolling out over the next few months - a module (or two) at a time.

Today sees the update for SIP with Communications going live. We’ve made a number of changes to the module which mainly consist of changing the software clients used to demonstrate presence and messaging. We’ve also introduced an element of UCaaS as well as fixing a few minor bugs. We hope you like the changes and stay tuned for more really soon.

Graham Francis
CEO The SIP School

November 21st 2016

The SIP Survey 2016 results are now out...

The SIP survey’s purpose is to take a look at SIP trunking and specifically, to document the most common issues that occur during SIP trunk implementations and what can be done to help mitigate these issues, if at all. Inputs are collected from vendors, service providers, integrators, resellers and also from small to enterprise clients from all around the world and the results of the survey are now available at this link.

The SIP Survey 2016 is collecting responses NOW! Help us with yours... :-)

Last year we reached 1098 respondants and this year we want even more. The SIP Survey 2016 is now online and available to complete at https://www.thesipschool.com/survey2016collect.html. The plan is to collect responses until the middle of October then to compile / analyse and report at some point at the end of October. Your help is most gratefully appreciated and there will be a prize draw at the end of the process where 3 people will win a training program of their choice from our website.

As well as SIP trunking, we've added more questions on Hosted/Cloud services and of course include some on WebRTC

So we've been working hard at updating the old SIP Communications for Sales program and included a lot more on Cloud, Mobility and other material to bring this program right up to date. To reflect on the emphasis in selling Cloud services as well as UC and SIP trunking we've both changed the name of the course and the certification test. The program is designed for anyone involved in the sales process for communications services today whether on-premesis, in the cloud or a hybrid solution.

Also, existing certification holders will be able to use the new SSSP™ logo that is the first of a rebranding program for all of our courses, stay tuned for more.

June 4th 2016

Skype for Business and SIP trunking

Great news for students today as our new partners tekVizion have provided a ‘Skype for Business’ environment for students to logon and see how SIP trunking is configured and also to create test calls across a SIP trunk to the PSTN. This great system is called onTAP and allows you to run Skype, Cisco Call manager and more (soon) if you sign up for their service. The benefit to students of The SIP School is that they will be able to see how SIP trunking works from one of the largest vendors in the market. This can only make the SIP trunking section of the SSCA training program even stronger. For more information on the new partnership please take a look at this PRESS RELEASE and to read more about tekVizion, please click here… https://www.thesipschool.com/tekvizion.html

March 22nd 2016

Exam Review is now available!

From today, there is now an exam review option that students can use once they have had a test marked. We've added this as it will allow people to see what they got wrong (as well as right) so that if they need to, they can refocus their efforts on passing their exam. We hope that people will use and like this feature and think it will be a success.

The team @ The SIP School

March 14th 2016

Networking 4 VVoIP is updated!

So our Networking course has had more than just a content refresh, it has had a facelift with regards to the course look, feel and menu design. It's also now iPad compatible with full HTML5 support.

The course content can be found in this PDF and don't forget the demo as well which includes a free module on DHCP.

We hope you like the changes :-)

November 10th 2015

The SIP Survey results are out..!

Earlier this year, The SIP School carried out it's annual survey to find out what's really happening in the world of SIP and SIP trunking. We do this to see what problems people are getting and to work out what people need to do in order to get SIP Trunking right the first time.

We found that problems ranged from Codec issues, No - Audio, Failure to keep systems patched, Call transfer issues and many many more. We even threw in a couple of questions on WebRTC...!

We’ve updated most modules with their specific changes found in the Outline Doc where the new stuff is in a Bold Blue font.

PLUS, we have made available (in Beta) the content in HTML5 format so it will run on your iPad or other Tablet device… (other courses to follow soon)

NOTE for SSCA exam takers… The changes to the training will NOT be reflected in the SSCA® certification test until the 24th March. This means that if you are preparing to take your exam soon, the new stuff will not be part of the test at this point in time.

We hope you like all the new stuff and thanks again for studying with us

The team @ The SIP School

February 12th 2015

New site, New content, New format...almost!

Well, if you haven’t noticed by now we have a NEW website…!!!! This has taken a while to produce and we really hope you like it.

As you work around the system you’ll find the following…

New pages with easier access to Demos and Outlines – Via the 4 squares on the front

New Support page that gathers more information to help us to help you

New testing system with more functionality to help you through your test

We’ve designed this system to look great on all devices including tablets. With that in mind, if you have a tablet device such as an iPad, our Sales course is now in HTML5 format and will run natively. It’s in BETA at the moment so let us know if you come across any issues. Other courses will be HTML5 soon.

Thanks again for reading and enjoy the site

July 21st 2014

New Content and New WAN Assessment system

Today we are very happy to have uploaded new content for the SIP training system. Specifically, the module SIP, VoIP and QoS will be expanded with the following:

Packet Rate / Packets per Second

DSCP with Assured Forwarding

Link options

Bandwidth vs Packets per Second

Network behavior analysis

Detailed, QoS ‘issues’ list

Decisions to make to improve Call Quality

Also……

Broadband WAN Assessment for SIP trunking with PacketSmart

One of The SIP School’s many good friends in the ‘Comms’ industry is Broadsoft. Using their Packetsmart system you now have the ability to run ‘real' VoIP (and Video) simulation tests to determine if a WAN link has the capabilities of carrying your desired VoIP traffic or in other words, a full SIP trunking assessment test.

This testing system has been provided for free for students to use and we’d like to thank the team at Broadsoft for all their efforts in making this available. The system is accessible from within the module SIP, VoIP and QoS.

We really hope you enjoy the new training and the new WAN Assessment system and please note:

If you are planning to take your SSCA® exam, then new questions relating to the new content (not including Packetsmart) will be added to the testing system database on the 20th of August and you may see these questions appear in your test. If you take your test prior to the 20th of August you will not see questions on the new material.

Many thanks again for being a student of The SIP School

June 16th 2014

the SIP Survey is out!

The 2014 SIP survey has been made available today on this website. All of you that are existing subscribers and/or students will be receiving an email with the link to download the PDF, any new visitors to this site can gain free access via this link http://www.thesipschool.com/sipsurvey2014.html

It's a great read that highlights what's happening in the SIP trunking space, what are the issues that people are facing along with suggestions, comments and quotes not only from us at The SIP School but from other respected thought leaders in the industry. This year, we’ve even added in a couple of questions on WebRTC!

SSCA® SIP and SSMP™ exams have been updated with some new questions today that relate to the new content uploaded on the 15th January. As our Q/A database holds in excess of 300 questions which are then selected at random for each test you may or may not be presented with the new questions for your own individual test.

January 15th 2014

SSCA® SIP ad SSMP Sales training program updates

Well today is when all the new updates to the SSCA SIP and SSMP Sale program are uploaded and available.

For the SSCA SIP Training program

All modules have had some general fixes i.e. link updates etc. with module specifics being.

SSMP Training changes are all related to bringing the material up to date with regards to companies who may have added / changed their SIP Comms services and even some of them who have merged with others.

NOTE: Updates to the SSCA and SSMP exams will be applied on the 3rd of February.

October 17th 2013

SSCA® SIP training program updates

Minor changes to the 'Testing Troubleshooting and Interop' module where references to sipgate.com (in the USA) + all configurations relating to this service have been replaced by other references. Sipgate in Germany and the UK continue (at this point) to offer SIP services.

September 26th 2013

SSCA® SIP training program updates

On Monday the 30th September, the latest round of updates will be uploaded to the training system for the SSCA® SIP training course. There are a few content changes to the program (listed below) that do not affect the current SSCA® certification test, so if you've already studied a module, you don't have to repeat it. Most of the changes are cosmetic with new images and an improved 'theme' throughout. We've also fixed a lot of bugs such as broken links, references to old software and old IETF documents.

New content updates:

Description of IETF working groups

Updated Jitsi and PhonerLite client setup, X-Lite setup now included

Updated video re: Social Study directory

Opus codec mentioned

Update from Martini WG to RFC 6140

RFC 6913 re: sip.fax tag explained

Updated IM Client examples

Thanks again for being a student of The SIP School™

September 13th 2013

The doors are 'fully open' at the WebRTC School

So we’ve been working hard, really hard to complete the WebRTC School ‘package’ and we’re finally there.

Today (September 12th) is the day that the WebRTC Developer training and certification program is ‘live’ on the site www.webrtcschool.com (and other sites inc. www.thesipschool.com) and it’s packed full of instruction, demos and ‘real code’ to help the developer get up and running with writing WebRTC applications. For a full demo and content pdf, click here. Of course WebRTC is not a ‘finalized’ specification but we’re on the case as we’ll be updating the training as things develop. Associated with the training is the WebRTC School Qualified Developer (WSQD™) certification test that is supported by industry giants such as the TIA, USTelecom, WebRTC World, Comptel and many many more including manufacturers such as Genband.

So now there are two programs.

WebRTC School Qualified Developer – WSQD™ and WebRTC School Qualified Integrator – WSQI™. If you want to do both there is a great offer of 20% off the ‘package’ price so you really can get to know WebRTC and show the world your skills via the qualifications.

Students of the ‘Developer’ program are encouraged to take the code shown and see what they can add to it (or even completely re-write it) and then to post information via the WebRTC School Facebook page here, www.facebook.com/webrtcschool - we’re hoping to see some good ideas very soon.

The Website has some nice touches as well with a new page that showcases the most prominent bloggers/writers on WebRTC such as Phil Edholm, Alan Johnston, Tsahi Levent-Levi and more. We added this as we are looking to continue to enhance the WebRTC learning experience with extra features.

So that’s it, we’re 'live' and I want to thank all of the team here at Vocale Ltd as well as our esteemed content providers for their tireless efforts in getting all of the WebRTC programs ready for students to get learning.

Graham

August 13th 2013

WSQD™ and WSQI™ Introduced

Today you may notice that the exam names for WebRTC training have changed. We needed to do this to avoid a 'potential' trademark clash and though it best to do it really early on in the lifetime of WebRTC than later on when a lot more students would be affected. If you have any questions about this change, please email graham@webrtcschool.com

Live training is to be delayed...

Simply put, the live WebRTC training that was due to run at ITEXPO this month is to be delayed/postponed. We'll probably set up a new date either laterer this year or Jan 2014, any questions - please email me on graham@webrtcschool.com

WebRTC is the hottest topic in communications today and The SIP School now has a 'sister' site in WebRTC School.

As you can imagine, this is a big day for us here at Vocale and we think that this new school is going to be every bit as successful as The SIP School in providing students with all the knowledge they need to both understand the ‘underlying’ technologies that make the WebRTC ‘magic’ happen as well as learning about WebRTC APIs and of course, how to develop WebRTC applications.

The Certified WebRTC Integrator program is the first one that is available with the Certified WebRTC Developer program becoming available soon - don't get them mixed up!!! Please take a look at the Demos and Outlines here http://www.webrtcschool.com/courses/view

If you have any more questions about this exciting new training / certification service then please send an email to graham@webrtcschool.com or use the contact page on the website.

June 3rd 2013

ITEXPO and WebRTC School

On August 26, ITEXPO and WebRTC School will team up and host a WebRTC pre-conference training and certification dedicated to WebRTC. The training program will be held at ITEXPO Conference at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nev. The event will feature noted WebRTC authors and industry leaders who will conduct a full day of education and training in WebRTC. All registrants will get access to the WebRTC School online training and certification for Web Developers.

The 2013 SIP survey has been made available today on this website. All of you that are existing subscribers and/or students will be receiving an email with the link to download the PDF, any new visitors to this site can gain free access via this link http://www.thesipschool.com/survey2013.html

It's a great read that highlights what's happening in the SIP trunking space, what are the issues that people are facing along with suggestions, comments and quotes not only from us at The SIP School but from other respected thought leaders in the industry.

WebRTC has become the hottest topic in the world of communications today and of course there will be a demand for training on both how WebRTC works and how to develop WebRTC applications.

Today, Vocale Ltd (owner of The SIP School) announces that it's WebRTC School website is now live with training courses becoming available by the end of June.

You can visit the site here at www.webrtcschool.com and pre-register your interest for the programs and as a result, be sent a discount voucher when the courses go live.

Two programs will become available

The Certified WebRTC Integrator program and the Certified WebRTC Developer program.

Small demos of the content of the programs are now available here with more to come over the next few weeks.

Support for these programs is expected to be massive from organisations around the world and already WebRTC World has endorsed the training and associated certifications.

If you have any questions about this exciting new training / certification service then please send an email to graham@webrtcschool.com or use the contact page on the website.

We're very happy to be offering this new service to you and very much expect it to become a great partner site to The SIP School.

New content uploaded

Today we have uploaded some new content and as well as a few other fixes.

The module Firewalls, NAT and SBCs is the one with all of the major changes which are:

UDP 'Hole Punching' added

'Hairpinning' explained

Updates to the STUN slides

Updates to the TURN slides

Interactive Connectivity Establishment - 'ICE' theory

ICE in depth, including candidate details

ICE 'in practice'

ICE 'tags'

Configuring ICE in SIP clients

More slides on SBCs added.

Hope you like the new elements and updates to the SSCA® will be applied in 2 weeks time.

Cisco chooses us to supply SIP training

We're really happy to announce that Cisco have added all of The SIP School training and certification products onto their Cisco Learning Network Store. We are now officially a Cisco Authorized Supplier.

This means that our reach has grown dramatically whilst also allowing people who are trying to attain Cisco certifications to study SIP in more depth than they can using Cisco's own materials.

Today we have released the biggest ever upgrade to our Networking 4 VoIP program and thus renamed it:

Networking 4 VVoIP where VVoIP stands for Voice and Video over IP.

All modules have had an update with most having new content added with special attention paid to Voice over IP. As well as the existing modules we have added three new ones.

Video over IP

Hosted VoIP

IPv6

These are really important areas in the world of networking and Unified Communications and by their inclusion, this training program will continue to be the foundation that suits all manufacturers, service providers and dealers that work with Data and VVoIP.

What is noticeable is that the price has not changed despite the extra material and all holders of existing Networking 4 VoIP licenses will see all the new material for free.

Regarding the certification test, the SSVP will be replaced by the SSVVP on the 29th of Novemeber. This gives people who have just finished studying for the SSVP time to take the test before it is updated with new questions that relate to the new content.

October 2nd 2012

Press Release: "SIP Certifications, an Industry Standard at 1000+"

The SIP School has awarded the 1000th SIP School Certified Associate (SSCA). The SSCA is the leading vendor-neutral certification for networking professionals that is globally recognized and has become the SIP certification to attain.

Sreekumar G, the 1000th recipient says, “I’m currently working as a Technical Manager in AVAYA. My primary job includes supporting the AVAYA customers around the globe who are using Unified Communications solutions. The SSCA SIP certification was very highly structured and it’s helping engineers in understanding the SIP concepts, call flow, etc. I would strongly recommend engineers who are working in the SIP domain to try this as it will really help in your day to day work.”

SIP certification involves a series of online SIP training modules followed by an extensive online test of the technologists understanding and application of SIP. Becoming a SSCA demonstrates that the recipient can work effectively in the VoIP environment and SIP’s migration into support Unified Communications. The SIP training program is specifically designed to not only educate on SIP but teach people how to work with confidence in situations that may be completely new to them. Use the discount code “1000SSCA” when purchasing the training and taking the test.

Sharon Golan, Senior Technical Program Manager at Avaya believes that

“The SIP training program from The SIP School has proven to be a great resource for us in getting our engineers up to speed on the protocol that we are building into the Avaya products. Getting engineers certified as an SSCA has brought numerous benefits for us as an employer, not only getting our engineers the required skills, but we can also measure peoples development and reward them as such. For the engineers themselves, they are happy to achieve certified status and be seen by their peers and clients as an expert on SIP. Of course, our customers are benefiting as support queries are dealt with quicker, and they continue to get the excellent support that they are used to. “

Certification can help the employee in many ways including job prospects, job promotion, higher standing in the telecom community along with the confidence that their training and certification gives them the skills to adapt as SIP evolves. When hiring, 68% of IT managers regard certifications as medium to high priority according to the largest vendor-neutral certifying organization, CompTIA.

Getting certified is fast and easy. Networking professionals can obtain the SIP training and then go on to take the SSCA test. If the professional already has the knowledge, the SSCA test can be taken separately without taking the SIP training modules. The SIP School course descriptions can be found at http://www.thesipschool.com/courses/view which has course outlines and demos. Advice for selecting the best SIP training for the professional can be found at http://www.thesipschool.com/whichtypeareyou.html.

The SIP School is the web’s leading SIP training and Certification service that has quickly gained the backing of manufacturers and organisations that are prominent in the Telecoms industry. SIP, which stands for Session Initiation Protocol has become the most important protocol in Voice and Unified Communications today as it is built into handsets, PBX systems, gateways, and is also displacing traditional digital and analog lines with SIP trunks. Its importance to the Telecoms industry cannot be understated. Educated professionals are crucial to its development, hence the success of The SIP School programs.

With clients and partners such as Cisco, Avaya, Toshiba, Mitel, Panasonic, Acme Packet, AudioCodes, Bell Canada, British Telecom, NEC and many others it’s easy to see why The SIP School has become the provider of choice for education and with the backing of the TIA, it is firmly established as the world leader.

“The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), the leader in advocacy, standards development, business development and intelligence for the information and communications technology industry, has officially endorsed The SIP School as the provider of choice for training and certification for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). “

July 2nd 2012

Announcing USTelecom Online SIP Training and Certification

Here at The SIP School we're proud of all of our associations and partnerships which have helped us to established our training and SSCA® SIP certification as the industry standard.

Well, we now have another one and it's massive..!

USTelecom, "the nation’s premier trade association representing service providers and suppliers for the telecom industry" has now partnered with us to provide access to our SIP programs via their own website at http://www.ustelecom.org.

Here's a copy of the press release that is going out this week....

------------------------------------------------------

Announcing USTelecom Online SIP Training and Certification

In cooperation with The SIP School™, USTelecom is pleased to offer online training in the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), the foundation of voice communications all over the world. SIP is the underlying protocol of VoIP, voice over LTE and is the fundamental building block of the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture.

USTelecom members receive 10% off retail course/exam prices. Please login to the USTelecom website to see the members only discount code. Not sure if you’re a member? Contact USTelecom membership at membership@ustelecom.org or call (202) 326-7361 for the discount code.

------------------------------------------------------

So there you have it. Another great partnership setup and we'll keep you posted on some others that are about to go live soon.

June 29th 2012

Made it before the end of June - Phew!

SIP Communications for Sales and Marketing professionals has now been updated and the new elements of the training are now live.

More on Hosted PBX especially how to compare Hosted PBX to SIP trunking offerings

What Hosted PBX can and should offer

How to describe benefits of Hosted PBX to clients

Hosted PBX analysis spreadsheet for you to download

Plus a 'Mini-module' that describes MPLS

There is a lot of valuable information in this program that will help Sales and Marketing people see what's happening in the market in order to build their own offerings, target their clients and make sales.

Hope you enjoy the updates!

April 10th 2012

After a busy March, please check out the new blog entry that includes information on a free Video presentation "What's up with SIP?"

February 28th 2012

New content in the SIP SSCA® Program - Check it out..!!!

We're really pleased to say that all updates are now Live!

What this means is that some of the training modules have had some new content added (as per The SIP School promise) to keep the program up to date and fresh. Please take time to revisit the modules to see the new stuff.

The SSCA® exam question database will not be updated until the 9th of March so if you have already revised the program and are looking to take the exam then you will not be affected until this date where a 'New' question may pop on the screen.

Ok, here is all the new stuff

More on Ethical Hacking + examples

More SIP trunk deployment scenarios

Broadband connection examples

More on MPLS

More on SBCs at the Corporate edge

SIP Refer examples

Using NSLOOKUP and DIG for DNS / ENUM testing

Testing Video Codec interop issues

More on loose / strict routing

TLS 1.2

UC client comparisons

SIMPLE Working group update

RFC reference updates

Minor bug fixes and web link updates

SSCA® in English, German and Spanish...!

We’re working hard on getting language support up and running for the SSCA® certification test and it’s now live in English, German and Spanish. We’ve got more languages on the way and any suggestions are welcome.

The SIP School connects with OnSIP

New York (PRWEB) January 09, 2012

As the provider of the global standard in SIP training and certification, The SIP School has taught thousands of employees in the telecommunications industry how to better support their clients, products and services. Until recently, students training to become an SIP School Certified Associate (SSCA®) were instructed in their first session to create a SIP address with any free service.

Today, The SIP School announces another option by working with OnSIP as their SIP service provider – leveraging the OnSIP API to provision each student with a SIP address on thesipschool.com domain.

“We are very excited to provide OnSIP services on The SIP School’s thesipschool.com domain,” said Rob Wolpov, President of OnSIP. “While we offer an enterprise-grade hosted phone service to businesses, OnSIP is, at its core, a highly scalable SIP platform, built to support real time communications using Internet domains. Anyone can sign up for an OnSIP account and take advantage of free SIP addresses, SIP domain hosting, and SIP calling using their own domain. We are glad to support The SIP School in training more people on the advantages of SIP in the future of real time communications.”

OnSIP originally began SIP domain hosting to encourage their customers to simplify communications and boost their corporate branding by creating SIP addresses for employees that match their email addresses. With the OnSIP API, customers can integrate SIP address provisioning into their own service offerings as The SIP School has accomplished.

“OnSIP is offering a fantastic service that we wanted to make available to our students to help them in their SIP studies,” said Graham Francis, CEO of the SIP School. “We provisioned thousands of existing student accounts using the OnSIP API, and every new student that signs up for training from now will automatically get their new SIP account provisioned for them again via the API. OnSIP made it really easy for us to do this, and it’s a service we recommend highly”.

To learn more about SIP, visit http://www.thesipschool.com.

For SIP services and business phone services, visit OnSIP.com.

About OnSIP

Having helped over 10,000 customers, Junction Networks is a leading provider of business VoIP service to small and medium-sized businesses. OnSIP, by Junction Networks, is an intuitive and reliable business phone service on the Internet for companies with 5 to 100 employees. OnSIP customers enjoy the benefits of a business class phone system, without the traditional high cost, burden, and inflexibility. For more information, visit http://www.onsip.com.

About The SIP School

The SIP School is the global leader in SIP education with over 5,500 students registered for its training programs. It is the issuing authority for the SSCA® Certification that is endorsed by the Telecommunications Industry Association along with many manufacturers of SIP devices and providers of SIP based services. For more information, visit http://www.thesipschool.com.

December 15th 2011

Almost NEWS...!

It's been a while since a news item was placed here and the frustrating thing is that there is so much to announce that we can't announce yet.

We cant announce until January 2012 our new SIP partner who is helping us to provide all students @thesipschool.com SIP accounts.

We cant announce yet the contract with one of the largest service providers in the world where we supply SIP and VoIP training and certification

We can't annouce yet the agreement with one of the largest Telco manufacturers in the world where the SSVP is a pre req for dealers and the SSCA is a recommended certification before dealers resell a new great SIP edge device

And we can't annouce the new work were doing with a giant in Telco where we're producing some new content for them?

FRUSTRATING..!!!! But of course, we will announce all these things when Press and Marketing staff have done their stuff.

So until then, it's a big thanks for being a supporter of The SIP School and have a great Holiday!

Brand new content going live this week!

So after a few months of hectic writing The SIP school is pleased to roll out its latest updates to the SSCA® SIP training program. There are the usual changes due to the ever evolving nature of SIP but most notably this time around is a brand new module on SIP and Fax over IP and quite a revamp of SIP trunking, which of course is the one thing everyone talks about in the industry.

We felt that a module on SIP and Fax over IP was much needed as people are finding that the service works well, badly or not at all and as Fax just doesn’t seem to want to go away then it’s got to be made to work over SIP trunks. The module teaches the basics of faxing, the transition to Fax over IP, the main FoIP protocols available and then heads off into troubleshooting and testing. We hope that this module proves a hit and enables people to cope with this old technology running over brand new links.

SIP trunking has also been updated quite a bit with the inclusion of an ITSP checklist. This list is designed to be a guide for people who are looking to sign up for SIP trunking services but are not sure how to start and what questions to ask. It’s not an exhaustive list but we think it’s a good ‘stake in the ground’. Anyone who uses the list and wants to offer suggestions for improvement will be helping everyone out as again, we’ll keep it updated.

May 6th 2011

Westcon Group - Shouting from the hilltops!

We've been associated with Westcon in the UK for around 6 months and now we're partnered with Westcon in the USA. Westcon are Avaya's largest distributer in the states and have partnered with us to get people up to speed on SIP.

Recent announcements to the press are all here and it's great to see such enhusiasm for our program from a global presence such as Westcon.

"SIP Communications for Sales and Marketing professionals" is now Live and replaces the old SIP Trunking for Sales/Marketing program. The reason being is that we've added in content to cover Unified Comms and Hosted PBX so it's not just about SIP Trunking anymore.

The new certification name / logo - SSMP™ stands for SIP Sales and Markeitng professional. Any existing certified user will be able to see the changes on their certificate right away.

The SIP Survey 2011 - The results are in!

In February, The SIP School in association with Techistan carried out a survey to find out what's really happening in the world of SIP and SIP trunking. In fact we wanted to see what problems people were getting and work out what people need to do in order to get SIP Trunking right the first time.

We found that problems ranged from Codec issues, No - Audio, Failure to keep systems patched, Call transfer issues and many many more. And this is in an industry that has the ambition to displace TDM Trunks completely...!!!

With comments and insight from AudioCodes, Avaya, the SIP Forum, Mitel, Level 3, Ingate, Broadvox, Sonus Networks and more, you should download this report, grab a coffee and take 10 minutes to find out what's really going on out there and to make sure that you don't fall foul of some of the issues we found.

To get access to the full report, please register on our mailing list and we'll send you a link right away. http://www.thesipschool.com/connect.html - If you are already on our mailing list, you'll be receiving the link shortly.

February 21st 2011

SoTel Systems partnering with The SIP School

Saint Louis, Missouri, USA - February 14, 2011 - The SIP School continues to establish itself as the provider of the global standard in SIP Training and certification by gaining a major partner in SoTel Systems. Based out of Saint Louis, Missouri, SoTel offers SIP services from trunking to collocation hosting services.

On deciding to offer The SIP School’s range of SIP and VoIP training programs to SoTel clients, Value Added Resellers and SIP service agency channel, SoTel had this to say:

“The choice of SIP School was really not a decision at all. They are simply the best self-paced learning option for gaining not only knowledge of SIP Technology, but also how to sell it and the potential for an enterprise-class certification program for SIP through them is the ‘icing on the cake.’ This program is key to the education and certification of not only our Value Added Resellers but also our SIP channel partners. This is part of our complete plan for becoming the SIP Partner to have for all telecommunication VARs in 2011 and beyond.” - Kevin Hill, Manager - Technical Assistance Center, SoTel Systems, LLC

“Our partnership with The SIP School will allow us to leverage our knowledge of SIP trunking to strengthen our relationship with our partners and customers. Offering The SIP School’s training will elevate our partners to a higher level of education, which is vital in today’s competitive market.” - Adam Goebel, Channel Director of Sales for SoTel Systems LLC

“The SIP School will enable our partners to have a true understanding of SIP. Our partners will not only know how to work with SIP service, but they will also understand how to get the most out of this new and exciting technology.” - Nick Kramer, Channel Director of Inside Sales, SoTel Systems, LLC

Graham Francis, CEO of The SIP School said: “This partnership with SoTel is great for us. Being able to offer our training and certification to clients of SoTel with their great range of SIP services will further establish The SIP School as the industry’s choice for learning and qualifying on SIP.”

“The SIP School e-learning program is a great choice for companies who need to get their team trained on SIP whilst looking to slash travel and subsistence costs,” he said. Francis added that The SIP School has been updated constantly to keep up with the ongoing development of SIP since its launch in 2007 and is confident that the inclusion of modules such as ‘SIP in Unified Communications’ will tempt even more companies to join up. “Our SSCA® SIP certification is certainly the only one worth attaining as it’s now recognized by so many important companies and organizations around the world.”

February 15th 2011

SIP Facts Not Fiction Revealed by the SIP School and Techistan at Enterprise Connect

Contributing to truth and business development in VoIP and SIP-related business is a quest of The SIP School, Techistan online magazine, DIDXchange and thousands of others who will participate in Enterprise Connect Feb. 29 - March 3, 2011 in Orlando, Florida. The trio will use this opportunity, of the gathering of brightest minds, organizations and ideas, to share results of the complete cycle of months of systematic observation, measurement, experiment, formulation, testing and modification of the industry's experience with SIP (session initiation protocol).

One of the main themes of the conference program will be SIP and SIP Trunking, which is the focal point in The SIP School's inquiry and study, but also Mobility, Unified Communications, The Cloud and Virtualization, and Planning and Implementation of IP Telephony.

Graham Francis, CEO of The SIP School and a Telecommunications Editor of Techistan magazine states, "We are prepared with a strong focus. The industry is about more than Edge devices, session border controllers and SIP trunking. We want to know what people and organizations feel is difficult in the world of SIP as they attempt to get started. When the 'players' need help, who do they turn to? Service providers? What kind of support do they receive? Where are those service providers not meeting the needs?"

A survey is being shared across popular social media such as Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and blogs that millions of businesses use. The goal is to query regarding issues, best practices, and new ideas from those in the middle of the Internet protocol-based, hybrid, and pure PSTN communications sectors. After a careful study of the data, a follow-up survey will be shared with the original participants. Mr. Graham will notify them directly.

"Graham already has dozens of appointments with service providers scheduled during Enterprise Connect (formerly known as VoiceCon). He will share the results of this careful study with vendors, service providers, MSAs, highly respected industry consultants, exhibitors, and other presenters at the event," Suzanne Bowen, Vice President of Techistan online magazine and the DIDXchange. "Our companies are working together as press at the conference with a mission. It is to assist participants to discover concrete and essential ways to improve, expand, and innovate in what often feels like a volatile, chaotic atmosphere ... that of communications in general."

SIP is an acronym that stands for session initiation protocol that is used to control multi-media communications sessions and applications such as voice, video, instant messaging, presence information, file transfer and online gaming. The features of SIP enable familiar traditional telephone operations such as dialing a number, causing a phone to ring, hearing ringback tones or a busy signal. Most end-users do not experience any difference in what they expect except more control, remote access, increased flexibility and mobility-
empowerment. Most parties involved (vendors, service providers, end-users) may have the benefits of decreased communications cost and increased opportunities for generating new revenue because of replacing PSTN with SIP.

Visit www.The SIP School.com, www.techistan.com, www.enterpriseconnect.com/orlando, and www.didx.net for more information about the parties involved in the SIP survey and its final provision of SIP best practices and issues data. Other events where the public can meet with The SIP School, Techistan and DIDX include CTIA Wireless in Orlando, Florida March 22-24, 2011; Mobile Content Summit in New Delhi, India February 25, 2011; and East Africa Com in Nairobi, Kenya April 5-6, 2011.

January 31st 2011

SIP School comments on the SIP Trunking Report

I know there's only one comment from The SIP School on here, but it's still a valuable point so go read the whole doc...

On the surface, SIP trunking is an attractive alternative for nearly every enterprise ... the benefits are compelling. Yet, questions about cost, reliability and interoperability remain for most enterprise IT execs faced with the decision to implement.

Voice Report, in conjunction with BizTechReports, an independent reporting agency that covers enterprise technology trends, asked executives across dozens of industries to provide input regarding their adoption and utilization plans for SIP trunking within their enterprises.

While a little more than one-third of our respondents are currently implementing SIP trunking services in a substantial manner, 56 percent plan to increase their investments in this technology in 2011. This positive adoption trend is occurring despite the presence of significant levels of confusion and trepidation about SIP trunking.

Learn more in this just-released report, SIP Trunking in the Enterprise. With 10 information-packed charts -- each coupled with incisive analysis -- you discover exactly how enterprises just like yours are approaching SIP trunking. Here are just a few findings:

» 64 percent of respondents are NOT currently using SIP trunking in their enterprise
» 74 percent see consolidation of telecom services as a benefit of using SIP trunking services
» 60 percent of SIP trunking users report savings of 10 percent or more over their previous costs
» 45 percent are concerned about the reliability of SIP trunking services
» 58 percent intend to deploy SIP trunking services to more locations in 2011

WESTCON Convergence has partnered with a well known provider of the global standard in SIP training and certification. The distributor's collaboration with The SIP School offers resellers a range of online SIP-based technical and sales courses. Through a Westcon portal, resellers can access the full e-learning programme of training and SSCA certification, as well as an online sales and marketing resource centre. David Grant, Senior Vice President for Westcon Group Europe, said: "Standard vendor training alone does not always equip resellers with the requisite knowledge around the very protocol upon which their solutions are built. The SIP School training plugs the gap for sales, marketing and technical staff and offers the foundation for selling today's multi-vendor solutions.”

This session called The Secrets of SIP Trunking is designed to make companies who are looking to implement trunks think hard about what they need to do to prepare their network and what they should expect from their service providers.

Formally known as the Lan/Wan for VoIP course, Networking 4 VoIP is now worth 6 Bicsi CEC credits so is even more valuable to the student who passes the certification test. Also, pass the test and use the SSVP letters on your business correspondence, yes you are now a SIP School VoIP Professional.

For now, all the content is exactly the same but we'll be embarking on a content 'refresh' program that will be rolled out in stages up to and including Q1 2001.

Watch this space as they say :)

September 15th 2010

SIP in Action - Date/Time change

Due to various factors, the session called 'SIP in Action' due to run on October 4th at ITEXPO in LA has moved to Oct 5th at 2:00pm and is co-located in the Ingate room. Please note the change in your diary if you are planning to visit.

September 6th 2010

The SIP School™ gains recognition from Acme Packet

The SIP School continues to establish itself as the provider of the global standard in SIP Training and certification by gaining a major partner in Acme Packet.

Acme Packet with their extensive NET-NET family of products, enables the delivery of trusted, first-class interactive communications—voice, video and multimedia sessions—and data services across IP network borders and has 1105 customers in 105 countries which includes 91 of the top 100 service providers in the world; and 11 of the Fortune 25.

Graham Francis, CEO of The SIP School said: “This partnership with Acme Packet is fantastic for us. Being able to offer our training and certification to clients of one of the largest VoIP companies in the world further establishes The SIP School and the SSCA® Certification program as the industries choice for learning and qualifying on SIP”

“The SIP School e-learning program is a great choice for companies who need to get their people trained on SIP whilst looking to slash travel and subsistence costs”, he said. Francis added that The SIP School has been updated constantly to keep up with the ongoing development of SIP since its launch in 2007 and is confident that the inclusion of modules such as ‘SIP in Unified communications’ will tempt even more companies to join up. “We have more ‘industry giants’ evaluating our SIP training and SSCA® certification program and we will be announcing further endorsements over the coming weeks”, he said.

August 13th 2010

ITEXPO Conference announcement "SIP In Action" by The SIP School­™

October 4th - 2:15PM and it's FREE to attend!

This event aims to be Fast, Fun and Fully Interactive with the class and all with the purpose of seeing SIP in Action...

Event highlights

The basics of SIP will be explained especially looking at why SIP has become so important

The Instructor will demonstrate how quick a SIP based PBX can be configured

Attendees (with Laptops) will then Configure SIP clients to connect to the PBX and start making calls

The Instructor will show what's happening on the wire with SIP using tools such as Wireshark

Next up, a partner company will demonstrate why a Session Border Control is needed on the Edge of the network and the Instructors will show how to connect the PBX to the SBC

Then the Instructors will demonstrate connecting the SBC to a SIP Trunking Provider

Once this is all set-up, attendees will be able to make calls from their laptop client to their Cell phones or wherever they like (until we cut them off for costing too much )

At this point, the SIP network is up and running, but what about if things go wrong?

We'll show you common problems and solutions and even get the attendees involved to see if they know their SIP

This event aims to put 'fun' into a protocol... a tough call? Come along and see if we can do it ....

The SIP School, in conjunction with Maloff NetResults, today announces the general availability of a new on-line and interactive training program entitled “SIP Trunking for the Sales and Marketing Professional.” This three-module course is designed to provide critical information needed by both marketing organizations and sales personnel serving this burgeoning global marketplace.

Jointly developed with Joel Maloff, principal consultant of Maloff NetResults, this new course from The SIP School compliments existing programs but rather than focusing on the technical details, emphasizes an understanding of the rapidly evolving SIP trunking service provider marketplace, marketing considerations such as competitive analysis, pricing and packaging, and product differentiation, and specific sales strategies and tactics. “Having worked with sales agents, marketing professionals, and value-added resellers, I have found no other ready-to-go training program that assists in understanding and successfully selling SIP trunking services, “ said Maloff. “We have created this course with the sales and marketing person in mind.”

The three modules consist of The SIP Trunking Marketplace, SIP Trunking Service Development and Management, and Selling SIP Trunking Services. One of the highlights of the third module is a SIP trunking cost justification template that has been created both as an example and as a model for use in actual cases.

Graham Francis, CEO of The SIP School said “we are extremely excited to be working with Maloff NetResults as their experience has enabled us to bring to the market a training course that is completely unique as no other course like this exists. I also think that the cost justification template is a great tool that will help the sales person show actual savings that SIP trunks can bring rather than picking a figure out of the air which I believe a lot of people do which can be misleading”. Explaining the STCA™ certification, Graham also said “becoming a SIP Trunking Certified Advocate can prove to employers and clients that you understand how SIP trunking has become so important an alternative to traditional business lines“.

To gain access to the course, people will need to visit The SIP School’s main site at http://www.thesipschool.com and click on the ‘Course Catalog’. Here they will see the list of courses available and be able to make the appropriate purchase.

About Maloff NetResults

Maloff NetResults is an Internet and business consulting organization, focused on emerging Internet telephony technologies such as SIP, SIP trunking, and hosted PBX/cloud communications services. The company also specializes in information systems security policies and plans, development of RFPs, and technology project management. Clients include both technology companies and enterprises seeking to apply these technologies.

March 31st 2010

The SIP School™ joins the ITSPA

The SIP School™ today announced that has joined the Internet Telephony Service Providers Association in the UK.

Graham Francis, CEO of The SIP School said, “Joining the ITSPA is important to us for a number of reasons. First, we want to support the efforts of the ITSPA in its efforts to encourage the development of the VoIP industry in the UK and Second, to help us gain more visibility to the members of the ITSPA to assist them in their SIP and VoIP training needs”.

The SIP School™ with its SIP training and SSCA® program has become the world leader in SIP education with endorsements and partnerships with the likes of the TIA, Bisci, Mitel, Panasonic, Audiocodes, Avaya’s DevConnect Community, Telematrix, AudioCodes, Ingate and many more.

The ITSPA was formed in March 2004 as a trade association to represent UK-based network operators, service providers and other businesses involved with the supply of VoIP services to business and residential consumers within the United Kingdom and across the European Union. For more information www.itspa.org.uk

February 9th 2010

The SIP School™ to Speak at UCEXPO Olympia, London - March 2010

The SIP School™ announces today that CEO, Graham Francis will be presenting at UCEXPO 2010.

Free to all UCEXPO attendees, the presentation will be held March 10th 15:10, 2010 at Olympia, London, UK.

The seminar called “Deploying SIP Trunks – Getting it Right the First Time”, will take people through a series of steps that they need to follow in order to implement SIP Trunks into their business so that they work first time and will pave the way for a successful transition from traditional links.

Graham Francis says “SIP Trunking is already popular yet 2010 will see implementation numbers rocket! Everyone wants the cost savings that SIP Trunks promise but if people don’t do their homework then installations can be messy and end up costing more. This seminar gives people the insights into deploying SIP Trunks quickly and effectively so that they can start saving money right away.

The SIP School™ to Speak at Ingate SIP Trunk Summit at ITEXPO East 2010

The SIP School™ announces today that CEO, Graham Francis will be presenting at the new SIP Trunk Summit at ITEXPO East 2010. Sponsored by Ingate® Systems with TMC, these educational seminars bring together leading IP-PBX vendors, SIP trunking service providers and industry thought leaders to provide a comprehensive overview of SIP trunking with key issues faced by enterprises, carriers and VARs today.

Free to all ITEXPO attendees, the Summit will be held January 20-22, 2010 at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami, Florida, in room A108/A109.

The seminar called “Deploying SIP Trunks – Getting it Right the First Time” running on Friday the 22nd @ 10am, will take people through a series of steps that they need to follow in order to implement SIP Trunks into their business so that they work first time and will pave the way for a successful transition from traditional links.

Graham Francis says “SIP Trunking is already popular yet 2010 will see implementation numbers rocket! Everyone wants the cost savings that SIP Trunks promise but if people don’t do their homework then installations can be messy and end up costing more. This seminar gives people the insights into deploying SIP Trunks quickly and effectively so that they can start saving money right away.

“Ingate is proud that The SIP School™ will participate in the SIP Trunk Summit,” said Steven Johnson, president, Ingate Systems. “They are a true innovator in SIP and SIP trunking. Graham Francis’s insights will provide an important perspective to the session.”

Contact details for Graham Francis
Graham@thesipschool.com or follow him on Twitter MrSIP

September 30th 2009

TeleMatrix choose The SIP School and the SSCA™

The SIP School has gained another great client and endorsement for its SIP training and Certification program and this time it’s the Colorado-based telephone specialist, TeleMatrix. TeleMatrix is a leader in the provision of telephones to the commercial, hospitality, and health care markets. TeleMatrix has over 7 million analog, SIP and Digital Centrex telephones installed at over 30,000 customer sites worldwide.

On deciding to utilize the services of the The SIP School and also offer these services to their dealer channel via their own customised web portal, TeleMatrix COO Jose Quiros says, “TeleMatrix takes the training of staff and channel partners seriously especially when it comes to SIP. So being able to offer our proprietary IP Configuration Tool training and The SIP School’s comprehensive SSCA™ certification program, demonstrates our commitment as a market leader in SIP-based telephony.”

The modules include training in areas such as TCP/IP, IP addresses, Switches and VLANs, DSCP and QoS, SIP Server functionality, Time Server, DHCP and TFTP. The course also includes material specific to TeleMatrix products such as the IP Mass Configuration Utility Installation, and IP Mass Administration Utility (Overview, Setup, Discovering Phones, Checking Status). This will be enhanced with a secure Knowledge Server for TeleMatrix products accessible only to Value Added Resellers that meet TeleMatrix SIP certification requirements.

“Our SSCA™ certification is certainly the only one worth attaining regardless of which training company you choose to use as it’s now recognised by so many important companies and organisations around the world”, states Graham Francis, CEO of The SIP School.

About TeleMatrix
TeleMatrix, Inc. is a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) and leading ISO 9001 and RoHS-certified manufacturer of SIP corded, DECT SIP cordless, analog, and Digital Centrex telephones for hotel, education, health care, and general business applications. Through the 2006 merger of TeleMatrix and Scitec, the combined companies have deployed 7 million telephones at 30,000 commercial customer locations worldwide.

August 11th 2009

Audiocodes recommendation for The SIP School™

The SIP School has gained another big ‘thumbs up’ for its SIP training and SSCA™ certification service and this time it's from Alan Percy the Director of Market Development at AudioCodes.

Alan says, “I’ve found The SIP School materials to be quite helpful in getting our customers and partners started with their SIP education and very easy to use and follow. For those just getting started with SIP, The SIP School is an excellent resource that I personally recommend.”

Graham Francis, CEO at The SIP School said: “Getting a recommendation for our training and certification from someone with the standing that Alan has in the world of SIP and VoIP is just great news for us and it again shows that forward thinking companies understand the need for top class training on SIP along with a method for proving skill levels through our SSCA™ certification program.

AudioCodes Ltd is based out of Israel with locations all over the world. They design, manufacture and sell advanced Voice over IP and converged VoIP and Data networking products and applications to Service Providers and Enterprises.